This application incorporates by reference of Taiwan application Serial No. 090128260, filed Nov. 14, 2001.
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to a composition of a fragrant ink, and more particularly to a fragrant ink composition, using microcapsule to encapsulate a fragrant agent.
2. Description of the Related Art
Organic additives, such as colorant, surfactant and pH buffer, used in ink, produce pungent irritating odor. Thus, manufacturing fragrant ink without the unpleasant odor is now of great interest.
Perfumes can be sorted as natural perfumes and synthetic perfumes by their origins. The natural perfumes are obtained from living beings by the separation steps such as extraction, condensation, oil pressing or distillation and can be categorized as plant-originated perfumes and animal-originated perfumes. The synthetic perfumes are manufactured by chemical synthesize. One of the categories is petrochemical perfume.
Perfumes can also be sorted into 5 grades by their contents of essence. (1) Parfum, also called condensed Eau de parfum, contains more than 20 wt % of essence. It is the highest grade. (2) Eau de parfum contains 15 to 20 wt % of essence, which is cheaper than parfum. (3) Eau de toilette contains 8 to 15 wt % of essence, which is more popular. (4) Eau de cologne contains 4 to 8 wt % of essence. Most male perfumes belong to this grade. (5) Eau fraiche contains 1 to 3 wt % of essence.
Perfumes can be categorized as flower perfumes and fancy perfumes. For flower perfumes, the floral fragrance like roses, jasmines or tuberoses is used as a base to manufacture perfumes with single floral fragrance perfumes or multi floral fragrance perfumes. Fancy perfume uses natural beings other than flowers as a base, to express forests, grasses, places, landscapes, characters, music or certain atmospheres.
Perfumes are blends of essences, water and ethanol. Most essences are oil-soluble and are not soluble in water. Ethanol has the drawbacks of low boiling point, high volatility, low durability, being lipo-phobic, and hard to emulsify. Thus, surfactant is frequently added to emulsify essences. By adding hydrophobic functional group at the oil-soluble essence particles, oil-in-water type emulsion is formed. To ensure the stability of the perfume, surfactants with proper percentage of long and short hydrophobic functional groups are required. (HLB) is proposed by Griffin to characterize surfactants. The hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB) is an empirical number that describes the relationship between the hydrophilic (water-soluble) and lipophilic (oil-soluble) portions of a surfactant molecule. There are a number of ways to determine HLB. The general rule is to determine the ratio of liphophilic functional groups to the whole surfactant molecular. Surfactants with a strong lipophilic character have a low HLB, while the ones with a stronger hydrophilic value have a high HLB. The surfactants for perfumes can be also characterized by the solubility of spices in the surfactants. Alcohol type spices have higher solubility, ketone type spices have less and ester type spices have the lowest in the three.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,123,757 discloses a composition of a fragrant ink, including a alcohol, a chemical compound for forming images, an aromatic compound, deionized water and ethanol. The aromatic compound in the ink covers the pungent odor of the other ink ingredients and produces fragrance. In the invention, ethanol is chosen as a surfactant. However, ethanol is poor at emulsification. Ethanol is not able to dissolve the aromatic compounds completely in the inks, and therefore unable to effectively provide fragrance. Further more, the uneven dispersion often causes nozzle clogging. Also, ethanol has a low boiling point and high volatility, which leads the aromatic compounds to volatilize. As a result, the durability of the fragrance of the printed figures is greatly reduced. Moreover, inks with ethanol have low surface tension, which causes the printed words and figures to fade and spread.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a composition of fragrant ink, at least comprising a microcapsule compound, a colorant, a media, a dispersing agent, and an emulsifier. The microcapsule compound encapsulates a fragrant agent for providing the fragrant ink with fragrance. The colorant provides the fragrant ink with at least one color. The media is used as a solvent. The dispersing agent is for evenly dispersing the microcapsule compound in the media. The emulsifier emulsifies the fragrant agent released from the microcapsule compound and evenly disperses the fragrant agent in the media.
The fragrant agent can be a natural fragrant agent or a synthetic fragrant agent. The natural fragrant agent can be any one or any combination of the following: oil of rose, oil of cymbopogonmartini, oil of lena-batu, oil of sandal, rosemary, oil of lavender, oil of fennel, oil of jasmin, oil of cinnamon, oil of lilac, oil of Ylang-Ylang, oil of turpentine, musk, ciret, castreum or ambergris. The synthetic fragrant agent can be any one or any combination of the following: xcex2-caryophyllene, linalool, xcex1-terpineol, cinnamic aldehyde, salicylic aldehyde, allyl caproate, xcex2-lonone, maltol, musk ambrette, anethole, thymol, eugenol, isosafrol, benzoic acid, methyl phenylacetate, oxide ketone, or 1-bromo-2-phenylethylene. The microcapsule compound has a particle size less than 1 xcexcm and a weight percentage of about 0.01 wt % to 10 wt %.
It is therefore a further object of the invention to provide a preparation method of forming a fragrant ink. The method comprises steps of: providing a media as a solvent; mixing a microcapsule compound in the medium to form a microcapsule compound solution, wherein the microcapsule compound encapsulates a fragrant agent for providing the fragrant ink with fragrance; mixing a colorant in the media, wherein the colorants provide the fragrant ink with at least one color; mixing a dispersing agent in the microcapsule compound solution to evenly disperse the microcapsule compound in the media; and mixing an emulsifier in the microcapsule compound solution to emulsify the fragrant agent released from the microcapsule compound and evenly dissolve the fragrant agent in the media.
Other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred but non-limiting embodiments. The following description is made with reference to the accompanying drawings.